Medication containers, for example vials, carpoules or ampoules, are widely used as containers for preservation and storage of medical, pharmaceutical or cosmetic preparations to be administered in a liquid form, in particular in pre-dosed amounts. These generally have a cylindrical shape, can be made of plastic or glass and are available in large quantities at low costs. In order to fill the containers under sterile conditions as efficiently as possible concepts are increasingly used according to which the containers are already packaged in a transport or packaging container at the manufacturer of the containers under sterile conditions, which are then unpacked and further processed at a pharmaceutical company under sterile conditions, in particular in a so-called sterile tunnel.
For this purpose various transport or packaging containers are known from the prior art, in which a plurality of medication containers are concurrently arranged in a regular array, for example in a matrix array along rows and columns extending perpendicular thereto. This has advantages with regard to the automated further processing of the containers since the containers can be passed at controlled positions and in a predetermined arrangement at processing stations, for example to processing machines, robots or the like.
Examples for such transport or packaging containers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,118,167 B2 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,100,263 B2. Further similar transport or packaging containers and supporting bases are disclosed in WO 2011/135085 A1, US 2011/0277419 A1, WO 2012/025549 A1, WO 2011/015896 A1, WO 2012/007056 A1 and WO 2009/015862 A1.
A conventional transport or packaging container, similar to that disclosed in EP 2 382 135 B1 (corresponding to WO 2010/086128) is shown in FIG. 1a. The containers 2′ are received in an insert having a plurality of cylindrical receptacles 39′ formed therein, which are formed by transverse webs 35′ and a bottom 40′. The bottoms 3′ of the containers 2′ rest on the bottom 40′ of the insert, the filling openings 7′ at the upper end of the containers 2′ face the opening of the transport or packaging container 10. The insert is inserted into the transport or packaging container 10′ together with the plurality of containers 2′ and constitutes a separate member.
However, for the further processing the medication containers must always be separated. This is exemplified with reference to FIG. 1b, which is a schematic flow diagram of a conventional process for freeze-drying of pharmaceutical products in medication containers, e.g. of the kind disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,043.
First, the processing plant, namely a sterile tunnel, is charged with the vials. For this purpose, the vials are mounted upside down in transport frames, which are then conveyed through the processing plant. For pretreatment the vials held in the transport frame are sterilized. Then the transport frames together with the vials stored therein are turned and filled with a drug solution.
Subsequently a plug is placed on the upper edge of the vial, in which a passage is formed, via the interior of the vials is communicating with the cavity of the freeze-dryer during the lyophilization.
For freeze-drying (also known as lyophilization, or sublimation drying) the vials are then removed from the transport frame and individually put into the freeze-dryer. For this purpose, the bottoms of the vials must be put directly on a cooling bottom of a planar design to obtain a good cooling effect. If a direct contact is not ensured over the entire surface at this stage, this will result in a considerable prolongation of the freeze-drying process, leading to higher costs.
After freeze-drying the vials are removed from the freeze-dryer, the plugs are pushed down and a metal cap is put on the plug and beaded or crimped. Vials processed in such manner are then delivered, for example by inserting a plurality of vials together in a supporting base and inserting the supporting base into a transport or packaging container, which is then packed sterilely for delivery.
The direct contact between the bottom of the medication containers and the cooling bottom necessary for freeze-drying conventionally requires treatment or processing of individual containers, which increases the processing and packaging costs. Conventionally a batch-wise, concurrent processing of a plurality of medication containers is not possible. In any case, a direct contact between the bottoms of the medication containers, in particular of the bottoms of the vials is not possible in the conventional supporting bases.
In particular, due to the necessary separation the above described procedure is time consuming and expensive.